The Tigon is a hybrid cross between a female lion
and a male tiger. The tigon is not currently as common as the
converse hybrid, the liger; however, in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, tigons were more common than ligers.
Tigons can exhibit characteristics of both parents: they can have both spots
from the mother and stripes from the father. Any mane that a male tigon may have
will appear shorter and less noticeable than a lion's mane and is
closer in type to the ruff of a male tiger.
It is a common misconception that Tigons are smaller than
lions or tigers. They do not exceed the size of their parent species because
they inherit growth-inhibitory genes from the lioness mother, but they do not
exhibit any kind of dwarfism; they often weigh around 180 kilograms (430 lb).
The comparative rarity of tigons is attributed to male
tigers' finding the courtship behaviour of a lioness too subtle and thus may
miss behavioural cues that signal her willingness to mate. However, lionesses
actively solicit mating, so the current rarity of tigons is most likely due to
their being less impressive in size than ligers, with a corresponding lesser
novelty value. A century ago, tigons were evidently more common than ligers.
Gerald Iles, in At Home In The Zoo (1961) was able to obtain three tigons for
Manchester's Belle Vue Zoo, but wrote: "He had never seen a liger." A number of
tigons are currently being bred in China.
